Man charged with attempted murder in connection to East Village nightclub shooting

A Des Moines police squad car blocks East Fifth Street on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, as officers investigate a shooting in the nearby 400 block of East Grand Ave in the city's Historic East Village neighborhood.(Photo: Luke Nozicka)

A man was in critical condition at a hospital after being shot in the face early Friday morning at a nightclub in the East Village, Des Moines police said.

The man was shot around 12:40 a.m. at the Lime Lounge, a club in the 400 block of East Grand Avenue in Des Moines, police said.

Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said the 29-year-old victim was shot outside the nightclub after some kind of "dispute" inside the bar, but it was unclear if he was involved the confrontation. He was taken to Mercy Medical Center where he's in critical condition "but expected to survive," a police news release said.

After speaking with witnesses, police found and detained Hutchinson, who Parizek said is also listed on arrest warrants out of Colorado.

It was the second shooting incident near the bar in the past week. No one was hurt on Jan. 11 in what Parizek called a "shooting incident." Similar to Friday morning's shooting, there was a "verbal dispute" inside the club. When the adversaries left the building, one person "allegedly pulled a gun" and the second person pulled his and fired a few shots in self-defense, Parizek said. That case is still open and no one's been charged.

Crime scene technicians processed the area early in the morning Friday and searched for evidence near the entrance of the club, which was blocked off by yellow police tape.

A little before 9 a.m., about eight hours after the shooting, Des Moines firefighters arrived at the scene to clean up blood on the Grand Avenue sidewalk in front of the bar's patio entrance. The difficulty of their task heightened when they realized the blood was frozen to the ground. Bloody latex gloves where disposed in a flower pot nearby.

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Using kitty litter, Des Moines firefighters work to remove blood from the sidewalk after an overnight shooting in front of the Lime Lounge in Des Moines' East Village. on Friday Jan. 18, 2019(Photo: Austin Cannon/The Register)

At the corner of East Fifth Street and Grand Avenue, Lime Lounge is a 1,700 square foot dance club that can hold about 100 people, according to its website.

And according to police, the bar's become a trouble spot over the past year.

Parizek said in 2018 officers responded to 58 calls for service at the bar. Comparatively, two nearby bars, Locust Tap and The Blazing Saddle, combined for 49 calls for service last year, he said.

“That stands out in that neighborhood,” Parizek said.

He said that while these two shootings happened outside the bar, the incidents originated inside before the ensuing, "preventable" violence.

City Councilman Joe Gatto, who represents the East Village, said Des Moines will work with regulators at the state's Alcoholic Beverages Division to correct the trend.

When reached by phone, Cornelius Qualley, one of the bar's owners, declined to comment for this story.

Des Moines police vehicles can be seen Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, on East Sixth Street as officers investigate a shooting in the nearby 400 block of East Grand Ave in the city's Historic East Village neighborhood.(Photo: Luke Nozicka)

Mike Draper, the owner of Raygun, which sits across East Fifth Street from Lime Lounge, said he'd heard about other fights and violence at the nightclub over the past two years. He said the recent shootings are worrisome.

"Two within a week is pretty alarming,” he said.

Gatto called the violence "horrible," saying the city needs to find both short- and long-term solutions to stop it. He said the lounge's owners need to take responsibility for the problems tainting what he called an otherwise safe and vibrant area.

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